Education and work of social carers

The overall management and organising of the education of social workers in the country is the responsibility of

Ministry of Education

Financing of the education of social workers

The financing by state funding and by private charity is important, financing by local governments is lacking. Financing by students themselves is at moderate level.

The rights to acquire education of social workers in the country

The person should not have any police record and he/she should not be younger than 18 years and should have secondary education.

The organisation of the further education of social workers in the country is the responsibility of

Ministry of Education and Ministry of Welfare

Financing of further education of social workers

The financing by state funding is lacking, the financing by private charity is important, financing by local governments is at low level. Financing by students themselves is at moderate level.

Amount of students of social worker education in the country

Number of all kinds of students is sufficient. The number of jobs available in this area is too small compared with the students that are graduating this profession.

Overall management and implementation of European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIPAHA) in the country is the responsibility of

Ministry of Welfare

The main resources of financing of European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing

The financing by state funding is at moderate level, the financing by private charity is important however financing by local governments is at low level.

Financing by families is at moderate level.

The required background of the social workers in the country

The persons with only elementary education are not accepted, persons with secondary education can work under control, leavers of short time professional courses can work but will be paid low, students of social workers profession can freely work.

The requirements to the professions of social worker concerning the level of ICT skills

It is practically required to be capable to use text editors, to browse Internet, to be informed about computer security and remote monitoring. Use of spread sheets and presentation tools, as well as social networks is considered desirable.

The standards of the profession of social worker (social carer) in the country

Standards for these professions were developed in our country but they don’t include and information’s regarding the acquisition of ICT competences. They include only the general competences for these professions.

System of carers activities in the country

Domiciliary care provision for older people is a social service that is still at the beginning and there are just a few organisations that are providing this type of services. Public system regarding domiciliary home care for older people is not highly regulated and there are a lot of lacks at this level. At governmental level aren’t structures that can coordinate the assistance activities for elderly as the National Authority for Child Protection or the National Authority for People with Disabilities. Domiciliary services for older people are categorized more as community service, and once assigned to this category are listed in the exclusive responsibility of local councils of the Church (Orthodox, Catholic). Provision of social and socio-medical services returns to local councils responsibility, directly or based on agreements signed with NGOs, religious units recognized in Romania or other natural or legal persons. Also, home care services are more common in urban areas, insufficient to the needs of the community and too little in rural areas where older people are especially cared by the family.

Individual rights to carer’s VET in the country

Individual rights regarding Professional Education and Training of carer’s in Romania are related to the education level of people interesting in becoming professional care workers – they must have at least 8 years of school completed and a paper to certify this. Also they must have and good communication skills, patience, calm and the ability to combine the daily care required with other relaxing activities to ensure the welfare of the elderly cared. All this contributes and helps to run smoothly the specific activities.

Legal framework of carer education in the country

In Romania, you can become a professional care worker by following an accredited qualification course that has duration between 250 - 360 hours, level 1 of qualification. These courses are validated by an authorization committee for professional courses. This committee is subordinated to the Ministry of Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection and Ministry of National Education. These types of courses are finalising with an exam which is assisted by the National Council for Adult Training and at the end, the participants that are graduating, obtain a qualification certificate.

Opportunities for carer’s VET in the country

Training opportunities and professional development of carer’s in our country are quite limited. Those that are working for a private organization have more opportunities to develop their knowledge and to acquire more information related to the social care field because they have the chance to participate in trainings and also the resources they can access are more diversified. NGO’s and charity bodies that employ social care workers are more willing to invest in the education of their employees and to send this people to specialized trainings in order to promote lifelong learning among them and also to better motivate them. In the private sector they have the opportunity to participate in workshops and conferences and to meet other specialists from this area. In the public system, the opportunities are limited because the money that the government allocates for carers education are not sufficient and therefore permanent education and training in this area is not really possible. Those that have their own resources and want to learn more are fallowing trainings individually.

Certification system of carers in the country

Certification system of carers in Romania is made in accordance with occupational standard that has as specific competences:

· providing physical care of the person cared;

· providing nutrition and hydration for the cared person;

· providing the hygiene of the space an of the auxiliary objects for the person cared;

· stimulation and socialization with the cared person;

· mobilization and transport for the person cared.

Competence certificate is recognised both in Romania and in the European Union, so they can work abroad after finalising this course.

System of validation of prior experience in the country

Until now a special system wasn’t developed that validates the prior experience of the carers in Romania. The prior experience is recognised based on recommendation letters and in some cases is based on practical tests in order to demonstrate the previous work in domiciliary home care.

Evaluation of the situation in the labour market of carers in the country

The quality of social services is an essential reference for the level of civilization of a society. Given the fact that the European average of the monthly salary of a care worker is over 1000 euros, monthly salaries allocated in Romania for the same services are between 150-200 euros, an amount completely ineffective that is discouraging the identification and the preparation of competent persons capable to provide decent care services. The small remuneration from this field made that very few people to move toward the care worker profession and that’s why in this moment on the labour market can be found a lot of vacancies jobs in this area. Most of those people that are graduating a care worker course choose to work abroad because there the working conditions are better. So, the care workers jobs in our country remain unoccupied and the number of Romanians choosing to work in their country is each year smaller and smaller.

Evaluation of the participation of the country in the European collaboration in the field of care on the old age people

European collaboration in the field of care on the old age people in our country is not very developed. Stakeholders, private and public institutions that are working in the field of domiciliary home care for older people don’t have so many connections with other specialist from this field. There were realised a few partnerships with people and organisations abroad but the number of projects and collaborations is still small. More connections were realised by the NGO’s because some of them have support from other European organizations. But lately, can be observed that experts in the field are making efforts in order to enlarge the cooperation and to find partners at European level that are interested to develop partnerships and to work together in order to provide better services for old people.

General description of the professional status of the carers in the country

Professional status of care workers in Romania is not very well defined on the labor market. Although for this job was elaborated an occupational standard and it is a certified occupation, there are still some lacks in the job description and regarding some of the skills that care workers should acquire in order to become a better professional in the home care field.

The professional status of care workers is linked with the social system in Romania, especially the part related to domiciliary home care. Unfortunately, even if a big number of care workers are very qualified people and they can offer good services for the older people, this don’t give them the chance to have a very good professional status on the labor market due to the fact that the occupation is not well paid and also the possibility to continuously improve their knowledge is very low especially for those working in the public system.

This occupation is mainly preferred by women (93% of all those interested to attend such a training course). Also, this occupation is rather preferred by people of middle age (they represent 48.6% of all those interested to attend such a training course), by young people (34, 3%) and by people coming from the older age group (17.1%).

Description of the place of work of the carers in the country

The activities developed by the Romanian care workers take place at the residence of the assisted person and involves mostly structured and repetitive tasks.

Requirements to the personality of the candidates for carer (moral stability, physical condition, addiction to nicotine, etc.)

In order to become a professional care worker in Romania, the candidates must have fallowing personality features:

· conscientious, honest, fair, serious, rigorous;

· person who likes to work for his peers, with a strong orientation toward interpersonal relationships;

· ability to manipulate objects and medical instruments and who prefer a work frame well organized and define.

Requirements to an immigrant as a candidate for carers job

Due to the fact that the country is not a country were immigrants want to come to work, especially in the social system, it is not the case for any requirements for this people.

Work regulations of carers in the country

· Working hours: most of the care workers are working between 6 and 8 hours a day.

· Rest period and rest breaks: week-ends are free/every day they have a break of 30 minutes that can be taken whenever they want between the visits they are doing at the domiciliary of their beneficiaries.

· Night working: In most of the cases is not required to work in the night. Maybe this is required just in emergency cases, for those that are medical assistants and are providing domiciliary home care for older people.

· Holidays: N/A

· Sick leave, maternity leave: In case of sick leave another college/other colleague’s will do the work until the person will recover and get back to work. In case of maternity leave another care worker must be hired for a determined period of time because in Romania most of the mothers are staying home in maternity leave for 2 years which is a long period so that tasks to be distributed to the other members of the team.

· Unemployment benefits: in case that the organization or public body doesn’t have any more the possibility to pay the salary, or the number of beneficiaries decreases – care worker that loses his job can benefit by unemployment benefits. These things are stipulated in the working contract.

Main principles of payment system of carers

Care workers in Romania are paid based on a monthly salary that is in the most of cases a little more than the minimum wage. The remuneration is paid once a month on card system by bank transfer or cash – this depends by the type of organization/public body and the number of people that have to be paid.

Other benefits of carers additional to the salary (telephone, covered transportation expenses, any discounts, etc.)

Additional benefits to the salary:

Service phone – a monthly subscription or prepaid SIM card is paid for each care worker in order to have the possibility to talk with the care recipients and to resolve different tasks as - doctor's appointment, speaking with relatives and be in touch with them in order to provide information’s about the older people health problems or other situation, have to chance to communicate with the social worker about the problems encountered in the residence of the beneficiaries.

Transportation expenses – they have a free monthly subscription for all public transportation means, benefit that is given by the local municipalities not only for care workers but also for almost all the staff working on national social system.

The motivation for job of carer

In most of the cases motivation is investigated by the people that are recruiting care workers for domiciliary care work. The most frequent kind of motivation comes from the professional satisfactions - helping people in need and those that are suffering – this is the main source of job satisfaction and things that motivate care workers to do this job and to continue to work in this field over the time. Also, another motivation comes from the fact that we have an aging population and this job even if is not very well paid in Romania, offers the opportunity to obtain and to keep your job for many years. The fact that is a safe job and that the chances to become unemployed are small, seems to be a good motivation for most of them.

Average duration of work in the position of a carer?

The average duration of work (in years) in the position of care worker in Romania is by 5-10 year, as some of the national research demonstrates. But, a large number of care workers remain in this job forever.

Long-term care and the situation of social workers

Country

Romania

The responsible body for overall management of social worker activities in the country

Ministry of Welfare

Long-term care

Basic principles

Long-term care is organised centrally.

Long-term care is not covered by a specific scheme but it is provided by different schemes covering largely invalidity, accidents at work and occupational diseases, old-age, and family benefits.

Long-term care philosophy is generally based on the concepts of residence and need.

Long-term care is financed by local budgets and state budget. No contributions.

Both cash and in-kind benefits are provided for long-term care.

Long-term care

Field of application

Persons with handicap (persons for whom the social environment, misfit to their physical, sensorial, psychological or mental impairments, obstructs or limits their access to society based on equal opportunities, and who are therefore in need of protection measures that support integration and social inclusion).
Senior persons (persons at Standard Retirement Age).

Organisation of Long-term care

Informal caregivers and professional providers

Senior persons:

· informal caregivers: explicitly allowed

· professional providers: caregiver (persoana de ingrijire) hired by the local authorities; public and private social services providers.

Long-term care

Benefits for the carer

Senior persons: as the caregiver (persoana de ingrijire) has an employment contract therefore he/she is covered for different risks.

Long-term care

User charges

Senior persons:

Home care: The user charges are based on the monthly average maintenance cost. The user charges and the monthly average maintenance cost are set by the local authorities. The user charges must be paid when the beneficiary’s income exceeds one fifth of the Guaranteed Minimum Income (venit minim garantat) for an individual, i.e. RON25.00 (€5.61).

Residential care: The user charges are based on the monthly average maintenance cost. The user charges and the monthly average maintenance cost are set by the local authorities. The user charges must be paid when the beneficiary is earning income and having legal supporters.

Social protection system of the older people in general

Country

Romania

GDP at market prices. Purchasing Power Standard per inhabitant, 2011

n/a

Pension expenditure, % of GDP, 2010

8.4%

Expenditure on care for elderly, % of GDP, 2008

0.04%

At-risk-of-poverty rate, age group 65 years or over, 2011

14.1%

Old-age pensions

Basic principles

Public system of pensions: social insurance scheme, general, compulsory, contributory, pay-as-you-go, defined benefit, providing both cash and in-kind benefits.

Old-age pensions

Legal retirement age in standard case

Old-age pension (pensie pentru limita de varsta):

Men: 64 years and 4 months on 1 July 2012, increasing to 65 years on 1 January 2015.

Women: 59 years and 4 months on 1 July 2012, increasing to 63 years on 1 January 2030.

Financing principles for old-age pensions

Contributions (employees, employers, self-employed, unemployed).

Benefits for older unemployed

No special provision

Financing systems for long-term benefits

Case of old-age benefits

Current income financing (‘pay-as-you-go’)

Health care

Basic principles

Compulsory social insurance scheme for all inhabitants financed mainly by contributions. Benefits-in-kind system.

The insured persons benefit from a basic package of medical services.

There is free competition between providers dealing with contracts with the health insurance houses.

Decentralisation and autonomy in the administration of the Health Insurance Fund.

Health care

Benefits for prosthesis, spectacles, hearing-aids

Insured persons are entitled to a list of medical devices - except spectacles - based on the medical prescription. They may be required to make a contribution toward the cost established according to the annually reviewed price list of medical devices. All categories contribute in a different way to the cost of medical devices. Pensioners pay only 20% of the cost.

Computer and Internet skills of the general population

Country

Romania

Use of computers

Enforced lack of a computer

2011

One adult 65 years or over. Cannot afford

11.3%

E-skills

2012

Individuals who have copied or moved a file or folder

33.0%

Individuals who have used copy or cut and paste tools to duplicate or move information on screen

26.0%

Individuals who have compressed files

19.0%

Way of obtaining e-skills

2011

Individuals who have obtained IT skills through self-study (learning by doing)

28.0%

Reasons for not having taken a computer course

2011

Individuals who do not need to take a computer course because their computer skills are sufficient

14.0%

Individuals who do not need to take a computer course because they rarely use computers

12.0%

Use of Internet

Frequency of Internet access:

2012

Once a week (including every day)

43.0%

Daily

29.0%

Internet used for

2012

Internet banking

3.0%

Interaction with public authorities (last 12 months)

31.0%

Mobile Internet access with portable computer

Every day or almost every day 2012

3.0%

Individuals' level of Internet skills

2011

Individuals who have used a search engine to find information

42.0%

Individuals who have sent an email with attached files

36.0%

Individuals who have posted messages to chat rooms, newsgroups or an online discussion forum

22.0%

Individuals who have used the Internet to make phone calls

15.0%

Individuals using the Internet for seeking health-related information

29.0%

Concern about possible problems related to Internet usage

2010

Strongly concerned about catching a virus or other computer infection (e.g. worm or Trojan horse) resulting in loss of information or time

8.0%

Mildly concerned about catching a virus or other computer infection (e.g. worm or Trojan horse) resulting in loss of information or time

23.0%

Not at all concerned about catching a virus or other computer infection (e.g. worm or Trojan horse) resulting in loss of information or time

9.0%

Security related problems experienced through using the Internet for private purposes in the last 12 months.

2010

Caught a virus or other computer infection (e.g. worm or Trojan horse) resulting in loss of information or time

n/a

Financial loss as a result of receiving fraudulent messages ('phishing') or getting redirected to fake websites asking for personal information ('pharming')

1.0%

Activities via Internet not done because of security concerns

2010

Security concerns kept individual from ordering or buying goods or services for private use

3.0%

Security concerns kept individual from communicating with public services and administrations

2.0%

Use and update of IT security software or tool to protect the private computer and data

2010

Use any kind of IT security software or tool (anti-virus, anti-spam,firewall, etc.) in order to protect private computer and data

25.0%

Don't use any kind of IT security software or tool (anti-virus, anti-spam, firewall, etc.) in order to protect private computer and data

5.0%

Don't know if use any kind of IT security software or tool (anti-virus, anti-spam, firewall, etc.) in order to protect private computer and data

5.0%

Frequency of safety copies or back up files from the computer on any external storage device

2010

Frequency of safety copies/back up files: always or almost always

7.0%

Frequency of safety copies/back up files: Never or hardly ever

11.0%

Evaluation of the computer and internet skills of the carers in the country

In Romania, at this moment digital skills in the care sector are quite low and the main obstacle that leads to this is the lack of funds in this area. There are no funds for equipment’s that can be used by care workers in their care work, devices that can meet their training needs in ICT.

Digital skills are based and on the age of carers. In home care work in our country, generally we met women with age around 40 without skills to use a computer.

Of course, most of the young care workers are familiar with new technologies. ICT skills are less common among carers with age over 50 years. Even if their number is small, there are a few care workers that are using new technologies in their care work: using the Internet to search care techniques for elderly, ordering everyday tasks using programs such as Word or Excel.

About Us

Carer+, co-financed by the European Union, aims to support the development of digital competences and digitally-supported professional skills for care workers, with a particular focus on applying these skills and competences to enhance the quality of care provided for care recipients.